House of Horrors: Part One
So you were teased, and unfortunately, you’re sort of going to be teased again. This is going to have to be a two-part post–there is too much to cover in one.
We hit the road on Friday with all of the necessary supplies to keep Erin healthy:
Look at Fluffer, watching over her.
Right when we departed, we noticed a sign for an estate sale that was not in our regular listings. We both began chanting, “Secret Sale! Secret Sale!” as if this is something we always shout when we find surprise sales. It’s not–we just both did it. Obviously this is proof that we are true BFFs.
We thought the secret sale was going to be a great way to start the day, but it ended up just having a bunch of overpriced furniture and old garbage. I purchased some wrapping paper for fifty cents. I wanted these small cat dishes but they were priced $25 for four. I asked the seller why they were so expensive and she said, “Because they’re old…” Uhm… that doesn’t mean they’re worth anything, lady. We got on with our day and went to another really disappointing sale. I got some square dancing records. Erin got a whole load of nothing.
Finally, we were on our way to the most promising looking sale of the day. We were really excited for this one because it looked packed, and like there was a lot of different kinds of stuff in the house. This sale was put on by the crabby ladies that Erin mentioned in her post about the antique cigar stand. These ladies like to make things really overpriced, but they often have sales in “digger” type houses. Adam was particularly pumped for this one because they had a bunch of Star Wars stuff, a Galaga cabinet (apparently this is the holy grail of video game cabinets), and tons of comic books. He sent me a list of items to look out for.
The house itself looked perfectly normal from the outside, but little did we know that there were mysteries and mild horrors awaiting us inside.
At first it just seemed like a regular older lady’s house. She clearly liked cats and other animals–there were lots of cat-themed items. She had a lot of books and jewelry. However, when we went upstairs, things changed.
When I got up there, I found Erin taking pictures of something in the corner of a room that was absolutely packed with stuff and other people. There were so many people and so much stuff in the space that at first I didn’t even notice the insanely weird shit around me. As it turns out, Erin was taking a picture of this:
And this…
…along with the creepy sculptures pictured in yesterday’s post. Here they are again:
The entire upstairs of this home was a mishmash of three-dimensional art, drawings and paintings, comic books, magazine clippings, and records. All of this was mixed with Christmas decorations and miscellaneous household items. After hearing the sellers talk more about the home and its owner, Erin and I found out that all of the sculptures and other artwork was created by the woman’s son, who was obsessed with Elvira. Apparently, the woman who lived there just never cleaned up or moved any of her son’s stuff, so it was as if the rooms were sort of stuck in this permanent time warp. It was weird–it was like the kid left one day and never came back, and his mom only went upstairs to store her belongings amidst his. The owner of the estate sale company said that the son now lives in California, and that he went to “that fancy art school.” I’ve been googling him for an hour and haven’t been able to find any info….
Anyway, there was a TON of his artwork in the house, mixed in with a lot of his personal collections of wacky stuff. He seemed to be into Robotech, Star Wars, comic books, Dragonlance, and naked ladies. Here’s one that he actually drew on the wall of that same room with the weird sculptures:
I called Adam and told him we’d need to go back the next day, because there was too much there for me to sort through. Not all of it was creepy (but…uh…most of it was)–for instance, check out this little guy. He almost looks like he’d be on Sesame Street:
I didn’t end up with anything too interesting or valuable, but I did end up with a new cool magnet. I also bought some old Rolling Stone magazines and some Tente blocks that I thought were Legos because apparently both Erin and I can’t read. Adam told me they’re not valuable. However, it seems like decent sized lots of them sell for about 60 bucks on eBay so I hope I prove him wrong.
The best part of the sculpture/creature story is that when Adam and I returned to the sale today, I was convinced that they’d be gone by the time we got there. I saw some hipsters walking out with some of the artwork when we pulled up today. But as it turns out, not only were all of the sculptures still there, but right before we left, a totally normal dad and his three daughters and wife were looking at those creepy dudes, debating on whether or not to buy them. The dad wanted them for Halloween, but he told me he was worried that they might be possessed.
Tomorrow, I’ll post more pictures and info about the artwork that I purchased when we went back today. It is REALLY crazy so stay tuned.
I think Erin is also planning on posting more about her purchases at this sale tomorrow, after she pumps herself full of antibiotics and Vicodin cough syrup.
-Sarah
Update: See Part Two for more creepy craziness.